As coronavirus spreads around the globe and in the United States, so too are disinformation, rumors, bogus, ridiculous and just plain false claims spreading like wildfire.
Qualifying as ridiculous is certainly the linking of Corona beer with the coronavirus.
A recent survey found that “38% of American beer drinkers surveyed…said they wouldn’t buy Corona ‘under any circumstances’ at the moment.”
Fortunately for Corona beer, “only” 4% of regular Corona beer lovers said they would stop drinking Corona.
That begs the question: If humans are afraid to contract the virus from a beer, can one imagine how fellow beers must be feeling towards one of their own that bears the dreaded name, “Corona”?
Several images have been published, in a well-intended, humorous vein, to depict the angst refrigerated products must feel when forced to share the cramped refrigerator space with a Corona beer.
In the same vein, above is the author’s attempt to express that meme.
There are many more coronavirus myths, rumors and misinformation – even conspiracy theories – making their rounds. A recent article attempts to debunk many of them, including the need for the beers in my refrigerator to wear face masks in the presence of a feared Corona beer.
Yet, many unwarranted anxieties persist.
One such anxiety we are witnessing worldwide is the run on toilet paper or, as NPR calls it, toilet tissue.
Supermarket shelves are being cleaned bare of toilet paper.
On social media, #toiletpapergate and #toiletpapercrisis are top trending. According to the BBC, in Australia, toilet paper rolls “were being flogged for hundreds of dollars online, while listeners were calling into radio stations to win packs of 3-ply loo roll.”
Also in Australia, police have been called to settle toilet paper fights in supermarket aisles.
In February, “armed robbers stole pallets in Hong Kong following panic-buying induced shortages there.”
The BBC sarcastically calls the worst doomsday scenario “being stuck on the toilet and finding you’re down to the last square.”
Many have tried to explain this phenomenon, but this author — not a toilet paper panic buyer – believes the most logical explanation is one provided by Professor Justin Wolfers, an eminent economist at the University of Michigan.
Wolfers compares the toilet paper run to a run of banks. “…you run out for toilet paper not because you fear society is about to crumble but because you fear others fear this…Fear of a run on toilet paper, like a run on banks, creates an actual run.”
Wolfers humorously suggests, “a federal strategic toilet paper reserve be created – millions, even billions of rolls of toilet tissue buried somewhere impenetrable and secure to reassure Americans there is toilet tissue for all in America – no need to surge into stores to grasp for every last roll.”
A little bit of well-intended humor is always appreciated in times of crisis.
What is neither appreciated nor useful are uniformed opinions, denials, braggadocio, incompetence, rosy assessments, political shenanigans, even misleading statements and lies hoisted upon a nation by its leader at a time of a deep crisis that could literally affect the lives and health of thousands upon thousands of it citizens.
By a man who wants us to believe that “the coronavirus will blow over without much hassle. [Who] believes the conspiracy theories that it’s a hoax designed to bring him down, and [who] also believes any messaging problem he has can be solved by more messaging from Trump.”
America can appreciate well-intended humor even in the darkest of darkest times.
America can put up with rumors and with ridiculous panic buying and hoarding.
But America cannot tolerate a president who only thinks of his re-election, blithely dismissing the most severe public-health and economic crises facing the nation in decades.
A president for whom coronavirus may prove to be an enemy he can’t tweet away.
DORIAN DE WIND
A native of Ecuador, educated in The Netherlands, Dorian de Wind is now happily settled in Austin, Texas, after world-wide residences and assignments as an Air Force communications-electronics officer and as a Lockheed Martin aerospace systems engineer. Author of three computer science textbooks for the U.S. Air Force Extension Course Institute (ECI) and a contributor to several newspapers, publications, websites and blogs, Dorian now concentrates on being a proud and loving grandfather and on trying to make this country better for his grandson and his descendants
